The Suffolk GP out-of-hours service provides advice, information and treatment for NHS patients who become unwell during the out-of-hours period when their own GP surgery is closed.

We provide services to patients whose health care needs are commissioned by the following Clinical Commissioning Groups in the Suffolk area:

Ipswich and East Suffolk

West Suffolk

How does the out-of-hours service work?

Suffolk GP out-of-hours service does not offer walk-in appointments, so access to the service is via the national NHS 111 call line. In Suffolk this service is delivered by Care UK.

Calls to NHS 111 are free from mobile phones and landlines and the service can be accessed 24 hours day, 365 days a year by dialling 1-1-1.

The NHS 111 team will assess your condition over the phone and if it is clinically appropriate, they will refer your case to the out-of-hours service. This will then result in either:

A telephone consultation with a doctor or nurse practitioner

A face to face appointment to attend a primary care centre to see a doctor or nurse practitioner

or

A home visit from one of our doctors or nurse practitioners

We provide GP out-of-hours services Monday to Friday from 6.30pm to 8.00am, and for 24 hours at weekends and during bank holidays.

Information Sharing

Care UK retains records about the healthcare and treatment you receive as one of our patients. This helps us to ensure that you get the best possible care from us. We have a legal duty to keep this information confidential and we will only ever use or pass on information about you where there is a genuine need for it.

As an OOH patient we will share details of your consultation with your GP to ensure continuity of care.

We may also share your information for the purposes of ongoing care with other Health or Social Care organisations eg NHS Trusts, Social Services, GPs, OOHs providers and ambulance services.

If you do not want your information to be shared then please speak to the clinician who will note your objections and explain to you the possible consequences of your decision, which could include delays in receiving ongoing care.

Latest news and advice from NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group